Heterosexual in Just Three Weeks!

Wow, Ted Haggard apparently was healed of his homosexuality in just three weeks. Focus on the Family outsourced the healing to an undisclosed location outside of Phoenix.

Perhaps like recent improvements to chemotherapy, ex-gay therapy today is stronger, more directed and with less awful side-effects (like say vomiting, hair loss, memory loss, weight loss–although at Love in Action we all experienced weight GAIN, but that other stuff too). Hmmm, I somehow doubt it.

And here I spent 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents trying to straighten myself out and at best I lived as a “healthy celibate ex-gay” for a year or two at a stretch before having a tumble only to get back on that ex-gay pony again. But then Haggard did go to Phoenix for treatment while I ended up in Memphis. Maybe the dry desert air is good for more than just arthritis. I doubt it.

I am not the only one who has doubts about the claims made by Haggard’s handlers.

Alan Chambers of Exodus appeared on CNN’s Cooper Anderson’s program last night where he raised doubts about the sudden transformation and also affirmed the existence of gay Christians. Yes, we too exist. Ex-gay Watch has a transcript of it.

Of course it sounds like Haggard’s handlers may be claiming that he was never gay to begin with, he was just acting out in a homosexual way.

I mention here how Ted Haggard, in his fall in his ministry is my brother in shame, but in his rapid recovery, apparently not so much, well, not yet.

Update: Jim Burroway over at Box Turtle Bulletin provides some more analysis on remarks made on CNN last night. Looking at the NYC papers today, this story gets mentioned EVERY WHERE. Ted Haggard’s spokesman should have consulted the image and PR folks at Exodus before coming out with such ridiculous statements.

diana, I imagine transsexuals would require at least 4 weeks. There are all the new accessories to sort out.

tor, no, they offer no money-back guarantees. I know of a university student who enrolled in LIA in the summer of 2005. He had to take out a loan to cover $7000 for the three months.

After a little more than a month, he realized it was not working. He tells me they let him go but refused to refund him for remaining time. He is now paying off that debt while also trying to finish university. That is Love Inaction.

Tor, I think it is more complex than that. Sure, there are plenty of ex-gays for pay who make their living out of providing this sort of treatment, but no one is getting rich.

They do get some power though in the church and opportunities to be public spokespeople, invitations to the White House and the praise of folks like James Dobson at Focus on the Family.

Some of the more local ministries really believe they are doing the right thing out of pure motives. And they do come across men and women with severe troubles–depression, addiction issues, post-traumatic stress. I question if they are actually equipped to help with these issues, especially as they hold to the line that the Bible stands opposed to homosexuality. Meaning to do well, these folks often end up doing more harm than good.

Maybe I can offer suggestions about the well-meaning people who espouse reparative therapy/ex-gay theory. This is how I see it…

When my husband told me he was gay, I did not fully (or even a little) understand what this meant. Being a fundamentalist Christian, I only recognized the idea that gay and Christian didn’t belong in the same sentence, much less the same person. I sure did have a lot to learn.As I began to read Mel White’s, “Stranger at the Gate,” and search on the internet for help to understand, my whole belief system was being challenged. I’d believed that God brought us together, that He had some purpose in our lives, and that the Bible, as I understood it, was 100% literally true. Recently, Peterson, you wrote about a seed of faith, being hardwired for faith in God, and I see myself as one of those. However, it took tremendous change in my mind to have a new look at our lives as they really were, not just how we wanted them to be. Let me write here without causing any barriers, but here I was, 52 years old, basic charismatic Christian, and my husand has just come out as gay! I realized I had to change, and it was a HUGE deal to shift into believing that there could be another interpretation to the Bible than what I’d always been told. Long story short, most of my friends still have the old fundamentalist views of homosexuality. I changed – and it will take that same change for people like Ted Haggard and that strain of Christianity to admit that gay people don’t have a choice, that they are created, accepted, loved by God. It will be a major, earth-shifting change, and there there are giant lies that have to be brought to the truth. I pray for that day to come, sooner rather than later.

It’s the whole 5 children and a loving wife that makes his claim suspect. Of COURSE it’s easier and certainly less hurtful to all involved to “come out” as straight in three weeks….but….the reality of what’s being dealt with will be recognized eventually. He (ted) knows….he’s just choosing to ice it over for the sake of his family’s feelings at this point….preventing them from begninning their own journey and questioning. He’s OBVIOUSLY been questioning things for a long, long while….and sweeping it under the proverbial rug will not make it go away. We should pray for that family.love and grace,pam

Having taught the O.J. Simpson murder trial in my Forensic Science class for the past decade, I have found that teenagers are just as engaged as their parents were with the case. The intersection of celebrity, class, power, race, privilege and forensic science each year grips them. Now, they also get to see this play […]